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Updated: June 24, 2025
The stele of Mesilim was restored to its place, and a second stele was inscribed and set up as a memorial of the new treaty. Enakalli did not negotiate the treaty on equal terms with Eannadu, for he only secured its ratification by consenting to pay heavy tribute in grain for the supply of the great temples of Nin-girsu and Ninâ in Shirpurla.
Nin-girsu, it will be recalled, has also traits which connect him with agricultural life, and Ninâ being the daughter of Nin-si-a, one of the forms under which Ningirsu-Ninib appears, we may connect Nisaba directly with the cults of which Lagash formed the center. Nisaba must have been the consort of one of the agricultural gods, whose jurisdiction falls within Gudea's empire.
Again, at the beginning of one of his inscriptions, he appeals to Nin-girsu, En-lil, Ninâ, Bau, Ga-tum-dug, Gal-alim, and Dun-shagga. He recounts what he has done to promote the cults of these deities, and upon his conduct he grounds his hope that they will aid him in his undertakings. The lists, as will be observed, vary in the number and in the order of the gods enumerated.
In the light of this, the relationship above set forth between Nin-girsu, Nin-gish-zida, and Nin-shakh becomes somewhat clearer.
But, since the list in question furnishes the name of no less than thirteen sacred edifices, we are certain that as many as four or five smaller chapels surrounded the precinct in which stood the great temple E-Ninnu, sacred to Gudea's chief god Ningirsu-Ninib. The list is headed by the sanctuary to Nin-girsu.
In the south, the patron deity of Lagash is designated by Gudea as "the mighty warrior of Bel," showing the supremacy accorded to the latter. A temple to En-lil at Lagash, and known as E-adda, 'house of the father, by virtue of the relationship existing between the god of Nippur and Nin-girsu, is mentioned by Uru-kagina.
As it is, he can only combine Bau's festival with the cult of Nin-girsu, by making the New Year's Day the occasion of a symbolical marriage between the god and the goddess. Nin-girsu is represented as offering marriage gifts to Bau, on the Zagmuku. How early Bau came to occupy so significant a rank has not been ascertained.
The cones of Gudea bear conventional inscriptions of a votive character addressed to Nin-girsu. In other temples, other gods were similarly remembered.
Standing far above him is the triad, Anu, Bel, and Ea, the gods that personify, as we have seen, the great divisions of the universe, heaven, earth, and water. These gods, accordingly, take precedence of Nin-girsu in the first list. In a succeeding chapter, the significance of this triad for the Babylonian religion will be fully set forth.
To the same class belong such designations as E-dur-an-ki, 'the link of heaven and earth, the name of a zikkurat at Larsa; E-an-dadia, 'the house reaching to heaven, the zikkurat at Agade; E-pa, 'the summit house, the zikkurat to Nin-girsu at Lagash; E-gubba-an-ki, 'the point of heaven and earth, one of the names of the zikkurat in Dilbat; E-dim-anna, 'the house of heavenly construction, the chapel to Sin within the precinct of E-Zida at Borsippa, a name that again conveys the notion of an edifice reaching up to heaven.
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